This chart shows the placement of every ball hit by the Dodgers' Adrian Gonzalez this season. Information like this is used to align defenses.

This chart shows the placement of every ball hit by the Dodgers' Adrian Gonzalez this season. Information like this is used to align defenses.

Defensive shifts become bigger part of baseball

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Tried-and-true baseball telecasts employ the center-field camera just before a pitch is thrown. The shot frames the pitcher and batter.

A left-handed hitter stings a ball up the middle and you instinctively expect a base hit. Then in the split second it takes for the telecast to switch to the camera above home plate, you suddenly realize the shortstop is there and this is going to be a routine 6-3.

That's how an infield shift can startle a TV viewer. The shift also apparently can startle a pitcher.

"You're so used to certain balls coming off the bat and you think they're hits," the Giants' Ryan Vogelsong said. He then mentioned two balls Adrian Gonzalez hit during Vogelsong's start at Dodger Stadium on May 8.

"Right away, I was like, 'Oh, that's up the middle and I've got to back up a base,' " Vogelsong said, "and I turn around and (shortstop Brandon Crawford) is standing there. ... You're like, 'Yeah, he's in the right spot,' but it's hard to get used to."

A typical shift brings the shortstop from the third-base side of second base to the first-base side. The third baseman then occupies what is normally the shortstop's spot, and the second baseman is set in short right field, giving him more range.

For decades, shifts were used rarely and almost exclusively against left-handed power hitters such as the Giants' Willie McCovey. In the past few seasons, with advanced data on hitters - and managers more willing to accept that data - shifts have become much more commonplace. Tampa Bay's Joe Maddon generally is recognized as the first manager to go with shifts extensively.

San Francisco fans and pitchers have become used to seeing Crawford positioned on or near the first-base side of second, with second baseman Brandon Hicks set up maybe 45 feet into right field. That's against left-handed pull hitters. Less often, but still more frequently than in past years, the Giants will move their second baseman to the third-base side of the diamond against right-handed pull hitters.

Manager Bruce Bochy and infield coach Ron Wotus say there are several reasons the Giants are more inclined to overload one side of the infield this season.

-- The Giants have access to more and better information on opposing hitters.

-- Infield shifts have become a trend throughout baseball. The A's have also used shifts more extensively the past two years under manager Bob Melvin.

"It's not so much out of the norm when you do it," Wotus said, "so it's a matter of trusting the information and trusting your personnel and living with the decision."

-- "Trusting your personnel" includes having a second baseman in Hicks who possesses a strong enough arm to make the odd throw from short right field to first base, and having pitchers - Wotus singled out Tim Hudson - who can pitch to a scouting report.

"It's all up to the pitcher," Crawford said. "If he's pitching them the right way, then yeah, it's going to play into the shift."

Vogelsong knows that, but doesn't check where the infielders are stationed pitch to pitch.

"To be honest with you - this probably isn't good - but half the time, I don't notice," he admitted. "I just kind of go with what we've game-planned to do."

Wotus goes over the game plan with the infielders before each game.

"For instance, we might shift on a guy with one pitcher and the next pitcher, we won't," Wotus said, "and then the relievers are a whole different ball of wax."

"Different" describes some of the plays Crawford and Hicks need to make. Hicks sometimes takes groundballs in the outfield during batting practice. Grounders tend "to snake a little bit more" on grass than on the infield dirt, he said.

When he's in shallow right field and ranges to his right to glove a grounder, the ensuing throw to first is about as tough as any infielder has to make.

When Hicks is on the third-base side of second for a right-handed pull hitter, it puts him awfully close to the shortstop. It also means those infielders are at basically the same depth.

That can cause some hesitation on a ball hit between them. Case in point: Hanley Ramirez's grounder May 11 that Hicks or shortstop Ehire Adrianza probably could have fielded but neither did. Ramirez ended up with a double.

"It's one of those weird plays that won't happen again," Hicks said. The Giants have decided the shortstop should go after that type of grounder.

One thing the Giants haven't done that some teams do when they shift for a left-handed pull hitter: Move their third baseman (usually Pablo Sandoval) to the first-base side of the diamond, leaving their shortstop to cover the left side.

The thought behind moving the third baseman instead of the shortstop is it means only one player is out of his normal position, and the shortstop invariably has more range than the third baseman.

Wotus' counterargument is twofold: First, if the batter hits a ball to the outfield, that puts Sandoval in an unfamiliar job - for him - as a relay man and Crawford in an accustomed spot of covering third.

The second is a nod to Crawford's glove and arm. Wotus said, "If we think the ball's going to be hit more to the right side, why don't we want to put our best defender on that side?"

Of course, using a shift does leave a defense vulnerable; it's a matter of simply playing the percentages.

"There are times that shift's going to get beat; you understand that," Bochy said. "I think you're going to see more clubs trying to do more to beat it, whether it's bunting or going the other way, but right now, it's worked well for us."

For an indication of how well, consider what Gonzalez did in that four-game series in Los Angeles this month. The Giants, with help from the shift, limited him to two hits in 17 at-bats.

Crawford walked in his first plate appearance in the series, and recalled chatting with Gonzalez at first base.

"He didn't talk to me the rest of the series," Crawford said, "so he might have been a little bit mad" about the shift.

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